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Dec 22, 2009

Hot trend today :Yesterday, the residents of San Diego felt the same shake of earthquake as they had in 2006. A loud, thundering noise was being heard by the residents of San Diego and they felt they had an earthquake. After the incident, the geological experts began to investigate the matter and after investigation of several hours they came to know that the earthquake was an actually a sonic boom. Robert Dollor is the seismologist at the United States Geological Survey he says that the loud voice was a sonic boom and he says that the military air crafts was the most likely culprits.

It is to be reported here that an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 was recorded by the United States Geological Survey at 1:38 p.m. Friday on 4th of December by the 43 miles west of San Diego and the origin of the earthquake was below the ocean. According to the U.S. Geological Survey a number of small earthquakes have been recorded by the survey this year including a 4.2 in January, a 3.8 in October and a 3.9 in November.

Dec 21, 2009

hot trend today :PHILADELPHIA — A West Chester man was sentenced Monday to 366 days in prison for a single count of securities fraud in connection with a scam involving four Pennsylvania school districts, including North Penn and Perkiomen Valley.

Robert Bradbury, 63, of West Chester, was initially charged with eight counts of mail fraud and one count of securities fraud when he was arrested back in December 2007.

An investment broker at the time, Bradbury illegally sold high-risk securities in the form of bond-anticipation notes for the Whitetail golf course project, a speculative venture located in Franklin County.

Bradbury concealed from the school districts the true nature of and risks associated with the investments, according to court documents. The notes were sold between 1998 and 2004.

The four school districts — Boyertown Area, Red Lion, Perkiomen Valley, and North Penn — collectively lost approximately $10.5 million as a result of the fraud.

The state school code allows districts to invest the proceeds of bond issues for capital projects, but limits such investments to certain conservative categories.

At the time of the indictment, former U.S. attorney Pat Meehan said the case was “a long and complicated story.

“Bottom line is that these school districts lost real money — money that could have been used to build new schools and to renovate existing buildings,” Meehan said in 2007. “Unfortunately, it’s money that comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”

Court records state that Boyertown had the most money invested with Bradbury, approximately $9.8 million.

Boyertown school board member John Crossley, contacted by phone Monday night, said Bradbury made a good first impression.

“Well, I was really shocked (at what happened) because he was a personable individual,” Crossley said. “I then found out we made bad investments with him.

“We are getting approximately 80 percent of the money back. The 20 percent isn’t the total loss for us. We lost income on money if we had it.

“I just didn’t see it coming,” he added. “Sometimes you see things coming, but I didn’t see it. This was his choosing and this is what he did to get him there.”

The bonds were purchased by the investment firm of Dolphin and Bradbury and were placed in an investment account on behalf of the Boyertown Area School District in 2001. After receiving notice of the default in 2004, school district officials discontinued all connections with Dolphin and Bradbury, with whom they had worked for nearly 35 years.

Bradbury illegally abused the trust of school district officials when he underwrote notes issued for the Whitetail project by two municipal authorities that separately owned it at different times — the Dauphin County General Authority and the Hummelstown General Authority — and sold them to the districts, according to court documents.

When Bradbury could not find buyers for long-term bonds to pay off the initial notes when they matured in 2001, the Hummelstown authority issued more than $14 million in new notes to replace them, all of which Bradbury sold to the school districts.

When those notes matured three years later, the authority defaulted, prosecutors said. The authority subsequently sold the golf course for $3.8 million, which will be divided among the school districts, they said.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick ordered Bradbury to pay a $10,000 fine. Bradbury’s date for reporting to prison is Feb. 1, 2010.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bernadette McKeon. The U.S. Attorney’s office was also assisted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Survivor season 20 is being called Heroes vs. Villains. Calling Survivor season 20 Heroes vs. Villains should lead Survivor fans to believe that it is definitely going to be an interesting cast. While the Survivor season 20 cast has not been officially released, there are already a ton of rumors out there about who might make it on to that cast. A Heroes vs. Villains season sounds like a good vs. bad interpretation, and could lead to some really great challenges.

By deciding to have the 20th season of Survivor be something special like this, CBS and the Survivor producers have made a really smart decision. Not only will this bring back some of the biggest fan favorites from over the years, but now it will present some very interesting wrinkles that could draw in more viewers. Those additional viewers should really help to increase the ratings for Survivor season 20, and now fans can sit back and guess about who will make the Survivor season 20 cast.

It was already announced that Survivor season one winner Richard Hatch won't be back because he couldn't get out of his probation (he went to jail for tax evasion) and that rules him out from season 20. It has also been rumored that Russell will return from Survivor Samoa to once again compete for the million dollars, but none of these rumors should really be believed until we get the official release from CBS telling us who will star in the Survivor season 20 Heroes vs. Villains.

The 20th season of Survivor was filmed back-to-back with Survivor Samoa in order to save some money on the production end of things, so it is probably ready to be shown already. They also filmed Survivor season 20 in Samoa, so it will be interesting if they use some of the same locations, or if they have a completely different set for some of the all-time greats from Survivor.

So as we head towards Survivor season 20: Heroes vs. Villains; who are some of the contestants that fans would like to see competing in the 20th season of the show? Do you want some of the really evil players? Was there a really nice guy you want to see back for another chance to win? Please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts about Survivor season 20.

We will also make sure to update Survivor fans as soon as the cast list is released for the Heroes vs. Villains season of Survivor.